Few to Take CLAS Tests in Newport : Education: More than 40% of students fail to return permission forms. Many parents refuse to allow testing.

Only about one-fifth of the eighth- and 10th-graders in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District will take the state’s controversial standardized tests this year, because hundreds of students did not return permission slips required by the district and hundreds of parents refused to let their children participate.

The low level of participation in the California Learning Assessment System means the test will offer little information about district and individual school performance, administrators said.

“It won’t yield useful results in any case,” said Barbara Anderson, director of instruction for Newport-Mesa Unified.

Joining a handful of other districts around the state, the Newport-Mesa school board voted last week to require parental permission before eighth- and 10th-grade students take the CLAS tests.

After reviewing the exams, trustees said CLAS violated state law by questioning students about family life, sex, religion and morality without parental permission. Faced with a competing state law that requires the district to administer standardized tests, the board decided to seek parental permission by sending permission slips home with students.

Although the district now will likely avoid legal challenges from either the state or CLAS opponents, lack of participation will render Newport-Mesa’s results virtually useless.

“It’s the kids who get hurt,” state Department of Education spokeswoman Susie Lange said about the Newport-Mesa situation. “Test results (offer) useful information as to how (a school’s) kids perform, compared to other kids in the state. With that information, hopefully, that community then works to strengthen its curriculum and strengthen education for their kids.

“(Newport-Mesa) just voted to give themselves less help in their education program,” she said. “Who does that hurt? The kids.” She noted that a Los Angeles judge ruled last week that parental permission is not required for the CLAS test.

Launched last year, CLAS attempts to evaluate students’ critical thinking as well as their knowledge, and measures performance against tough statewide standards. About 1 million fourth-, fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders in more than 7,000 schools are scheduled to take the reading, writing, math, science and social studies exams this spring at a cost of about $26 million.

In Newport-Mesa, elementary school students began taking the tests last week. Eighth- and 10th-graders who have permission will start the exams this week or next, Anderson said.

In most districts, CLAS is given in the classroom, with the handful of students who are not participating sent out for alternative activities. Because most of Newport-Mesa’s upper-grade students will not be taking the tests, classes will continue as normal, with those participating in CLAS pulled out for the exams.

Of 2,300 Newport-Mesa eighth- and 10th-graders eligible for the tests, only 1,323, or 57.5%, returned the permission slips on time. Of those, the parents of 872 students, or 66% of those responding, did not grant permission for their children to take the test, leaving only 451 with permission to participate. Those 451 students represent less than 20% of the total number of eighth- and 10th-grade students.

Participation will be lowest at two of the district’s four high schools. Only nine students, or 3% of those eligible, have permission to take CLAS at Estancia High; 16 students, 5% of the total, can take the exams at Newport Harbor High.

The other two traditional high schools, Corona del Mar High and Costa Mesa High, will each have more than 30% of eligible students taking the tests. Back Bay, the district’s alternative high school program, will have no students participate in CLAS. Only two Back Bay students returned the slips, and neither had parental permission.

State and local officials agreed that the low numbers were likely due to the difficulty in getting permission slips returned by older students and not to an overwhelming parental rejection of CLAS.

“Kids don’t love tests, and we were depending on kids to take the form home,” Anderson said. “A kid could see that the easiest way out was not to bring the slip home to the parents.”

Lange agreed, saying: “If we were giving $100 away to every kid, but you had to get positive parental permission, we probably would get the same results. . . . It just doesn’t happen. The slips don’t get there.”

Newport-Mesa Supt. Mac Bernd said he hopes the board’s criticism of CLAS will be addressed so the district can give the tests without parental permission slips next year.